Wednesday, June 11, 2008

.....And The Winners Should Be.....

THE BELOW POST ORIGINALLY WRITTEN/PUBLISHED 4/8/08 (PRIOR TO ANNOUNCEMENT OF FINALISTS)

1) With the conclusion of the regular NHL season its time to vote/award the various trophies based solely upon the regular season stats/accomplishments.

Hart- Alex Ovechkin. Easy choice! There is simply no way to deny what he has meant to his team. Scoring 28% of the team's goals, and involved in 49% of ALL Caps scoring alone would be Hart worthy stats. Add to that his goal total of 65, a record set for ANY left wing, EVER! He also won the league scoring title. Was tops in PP goals. Tops in game winning goals. In the top 5 for hits among forwards. He even had an impressive +28 for the year. The 'Great 8' was simply The Most valuable player, going away. Honorable mention: Nicklas Lidstrom and Jerome Iginla. Both had amazing years and were invaluable to their clubs, just not on the same planet in comparison to the degree that Ovechkin changed his club's fortunes

Norris- Nicklas Lidstrom- If not for Ovechkin's record setting season the ageless Swede would have been our choice for Hart. He had yet another amazingly dominant season at both ends of the rink. Putting up great offensive numbers while having yet another great +/- a small indicator of how well he plays on his own side of the blue line. Honorable mention: Dion Phaneuf and Zdeno Chara. No doubt Phaneuf will have a slew of Norris hardware some day, but probably not until Lidstrom is done.

Vezina- Martin Brodeur. What can we add to the accomplishments of one of the games all time greats? Marty had another 40+ win season moving him within shouting distance of Patrick Roy's all time win total. His save % and GAA were again miniscule. Even in back of a very average Devil defensive corps, Marty was an inpenatrable wall. Keeping the Devils in the playoff picture and a chance to win every night. Honorable Mention: Evgeny Nabokov and JS Giguere. Both had great years propelling their teams into the elite of the West.

Lady Byng- Pavel Datsyuk . Not only has the Russian had an outstandingly productive offensive season, but he also did it with a mere 20 mins in penalties. Honorable mention: Henrik Zetterberg and Martin St. Louis.

Ross- Alex Ovechkin- By virtue of winning the scoring title with 112 points the 3rd year forward becomes the very first Russian born player to takes home the Art Ross trophy. Its also the first time a Washington Capital has won the award.

Selke Trophy-Daniel Alfredsson. The offensively gifted Swede is often over looked for his significant defensive contributions. He played regularly on the PK unit, even racking up 9 points while on the kill, including an impressive 7 goals. Honorable mention: Pavel Datsyuk and Patrick Sharp

Richard- Alex Ovechkin- This will probably not be the last Richard trophy for the Russian sniper! Most goals EVER by a Left wing. We have a feeling this record won't stand long!

Masterdon- Jason Blake. Probably the most difficult award to pick as there is not always a direct on-ice correlation to the winner. However, given the awards recent history of giving it to a player who is stricken with illness (Phil Kessell) Jason's battle with cancer will probably get him the nod.

Calder- Patrick Kane. It was a close call, but the young NY native won us over. He led all rookies in points with 72. Honorable Mention- Kane narrowly in our opinion edged out capital center Niclas Backstrom by a hair. If not for an injury, we would have picked Kane's team mate Jon Towes, who before the injury was the Calder favourite.

Adams- Bruce Boudreau. Since taking over for the inept Glen Hanlon on Thanksgiving, the affable, former slap shot extra, 'Gabby' had his Capital charges playing at an amazing 108 point clip. Good for second best (Pittsburgh) during that time in the East. From then to the trade deadline the only change was behind the bench, so credit needs to go where its deserved. Honorable Mention: Guy Carbonneau of the Montreal Canadiens and Barry Trotz of Nashville. Guy's team finished tops in the conference. Weaving rookies and vets into a very impressive tapestry. Trotz on the other hand kept his team working hard/succeeding every night despite losing a ton of talent in the off season and rumours of the team being moved.

I agree with most of your choices here. Ovechkin winning is a badly kept secret. The NHL is already selling teashirts with Ovechkin's face winning the Hart on them.I think if the coach of the year is only based upon the regular season then Guy Carbonneau shoud win. The Habs finished first in the East, when many, myself included didn't think they'd even make the playoffs

I think Ovechkin had a great year. there is no denying that. however how could Nicklas Lidstrom not be among the Hart finalists? I mean he was far better than any other defensemen. He wil win another Norris, but its not like the second best guy was close. Playing defense at such a high level is harder in my opinion than playing forward. Lidstrom was the league MVP, but he wasn't even nominated? To me this tarnishes that award. Hopefully the players will see it this way and give him the Pearson

1) Chad: We would agree that Towes (when he played) was the best rookie. It remains to be seen if he played enough to sway enough voters. Our gut tells us that they will go with the stats of Kane scoring the most goals2) Pooh: WE can't argue with your points. We weren't big Trotz fans before this past season, but he did a great job!3) Lyle: We believe that all votes for all awards are made before the playoffs start. Guy will get some votes as will Babcock, but we think Boudreau will win. The contrast of before and after he arrived was quite stark!4) Blaine: We do plan to discuss the various coaching situations. There is a lot going on with other stuff right now, but it is on our agenda. 5) Stacy: Been a while. Welcome back. We agree that Blake would be a deserving winner6) Vlad: If Ovechkin hadn't had a record setting season and propelled his team into playoff contention (berth) we would have given Lidstrom the nod. We are in agreement that he deserved to be among the finalists.

I tend to lean towards Trotz as the better coach too Pooh. He got a team with no superstar and very little talent into the playoffs and darn near knocked out the eventual champs. It is hard to see Boudreau as having a tough road with the talent on his roster.

I think Chad is right. Towes looked like the best rookie player this year. He and Kane are going to put Hawk hockey back on the map. I'd be fine with Patrick winning the calder. He seems like a nice kid and is a hell of a player himself.